The Blacker the Berry
by Appello
Summary: Andromeda was supposed to be the good one. The proper one, the one her parents never had to worry about. But Andromeda had a secret, and a penchant for scruffy, unkempt blonde boys with smiles that wouldn't quit and blue eyes that saw right into her soul. She was supposed to be the good one, but she really, really wasn't... One-shot, rated M.
**A/N: So, um, this just happened. Sometimes the muse is a strange, terrifying creature, that's all I'm going to say about that.**

 **If there are any Ted/Andy shippers still out there, let me know. They are my favourite canon pairing ever, and I want to share the love!**

 **Smut Warning: This is rated M, folks, and for a reason. Scenes of a sexual nature may follow, please read responsibly :P**

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters herein. They all belong to JK Rowling and her wondrous imagination. I make no profit from this work.

* * *

 _Six in the morn', fire in the street_

 _Burn, baby, burn, that's all I wanna see_

-Kendrick Lamar

* * *

Andromeda was supposed to be the good one. Her older sister was 'wild', and her younger sister 'beautiful', sometimes 'perfect', depending on who you talked to. Andromeda was the 'good' one. The proper one. The one her parents never had to worry about. The one all the other pureblood mothers encouraged their sons to court. The one they pointed out to their daughters during family dinner parties, lecturing in a stern voice, _Why can't you be more like Andromeda Black? She never causes trouble for her family._

Nobody knew she had a secret.

And not just any secret, either. No, this wasn't the sort of secret nice pureblood girls had, like secretly fancying both of the Lestrange brothers at the same time, or letting Charius Selwyn feel them up in the shadowy corners of the library's restricted section, or even that they sometimes snuck Muggle magazines into their rooms to check out the fashion trends and the girls with short skirts and immobile smiles. No, this was a different kind of secret altogether.

She could hardly remember how it had started. She had been up on the Astronomy Tower, smoking (another secret) alone near the start of seventh year, and had suddenly found her solitude interrupted by another person.

The boy was dishevelled, unkempt. He had the look of someone who simply rolled out of bed, dragged some pants from the floor, and got on with their day. His tie was loose and his shirt tails untucked, and his dirty blonde hair was in dire need of a comb. He was the sort of boy her mother would have curled her lip at; the sort of boy Slytherin girls were supposed to cross the street to avoid.

Andromeda took a long drag of her cigarette. "What do you want?"

She knew who he was, of course. Everybody did. Ted Tonks was not the sort of person you overlooked. Class clown, school prankster, Quidditch star, heart throb. Plenty of girls panties had found their way into his locker over the years. As far as she knew, he'd enjoyed a follow up session with almost every one of them.

"Didn't peg you for a smoker," Ted said instead of answering. "Can I pinch one?"

She blew the smoke in his direction. "No."

He nodded. They both knew how this worked. She was literally out of his league. They didn't move in the same circles. Despite attending school together for seven years, they weren't even really in the same world. Andromeda tossed her cigarette over the ramparts and slid off her perch.

"Leaving so fast?" said Ted. "Thought you might fancy a quick shag?"

She had frozen in shock, astonished by his boldness and the nonchalant way he propositioned her. There were boys in Slytherin who would have cut out his tongue for much less.

"With you?" she said, dragging her eyes over his form, lingering on his scuffy shoes and the shirt hanging out of his belt. "You've got to be joking."

Ted grinned crookedly. "Well, it was worth a shot." He moved to take her perch, fishing a packet of tobacco out of his pocket. She glared at him.

"Thought you didn't have any?"

"Thought you were leaving?"

And she had meant to, she really had. But Andromeda was not the 'good' one. She was not the girl her parents thought she was. She was not the one her mother's friends should have been pointing out as an example of how to live. There was a darkness in her, just as there was in her older sister. She just chose to express it in different ways.

So, instead of leaving, she strode back over to him. He watched her approach with a smile.

"Change your mind?"

"You really want to shag me?" she asked.

"Sure," he said. "You're fucking hot."

The compliment didn't flatter or offend her. She knew she was attractive; had been cultivated since birth to be exactly that. "You know if anyone finds out you'll lose a kidney."

Ted cocked his head to the side, considering her. "I thought that was why we were given two?"

And so, because he had made her laugh and she couldn't remember the last time a boy had actually done that, she pulled his face down and kissed him. His lips were cold and tasted like tobacco, but she liked the way he didn't hesitate to claim the kiss and deepen it. And she liked the way he dug his fingers into her waist as he drew her closer.

She hadn't meant to shag him, of course. Just tease him a bit and see for herself what all the fuss was about. But he was good – too good, and she found herself losing her sense of reality far too quickly. Before she knew it, he had her pressed against the rampart, and her legs were wrapped around his waist, and his hands pushed her dress up, fingers fumbling with her lace panties. And she was wet, and he could feel it, and at that point there was no turning back. He entered her with a groan, and she tossed her head back to see the stars shimmering above her.

It was rough, and fast, and she came harder than she ever had before. Ted swallowed her scream with his mouth, and moments later he was coming too, groaning her name into her neck.

When it was over she slid back down the rampart, muttered a quick cleaning spell with her wand and dragged her panties back up her legs. Straightening her robes, she stared at him. His cheeks were flushed, and he looked a little shell-shocked, like perhaps that had gone further than he anticipated.

"Nobody finds out about this," she said, and he nodded wordlessly. "If they do, I will destroy you."

She _had_ left then, and fully intended that to be the end of it. Ted wasn't the first non-pureblood boy she'd slept with, after all, and she'd never had a problem ending things on a one night stand. Besides, everyone knew Tonks didn't do commitment. They would both forget about it and move on.

Except, it hadn't happened like that. Two weeks later, he sought her out, coming out of the library after curfew, and all but dragged her into an empty classroom before she had a chance to speak, then kissed her so hard she thought he might have left bruises.

She had shoved him, roughly, and he had taken a step back, looking at her with hooded eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"Kissing you," he said, reaching for her again.

"Why?" she asked, suspiciously, because every girl in Hogwarts knew Ted Tonks didn't do second dates, and she'd assumed he was as happy with their arrangement as she'd been convincing herself she was.

Ted stepped closer, not touching her. "I want to hear you scream my name like you did the other night," he whispered.

Despite herself, she blushed. It was rare enough that anybody could make her blush – she almost admired him. "That's awfully presumptuous of you, don't you think?" she said.

Ted leant even closer. She could feel his breath whisper over her neck, and couldn't help but arch into it. "You want me to leave?"

"No," she said, and then they were kissing again. And it was better than the first, because Ted took his time, taking off each item of clothing separately, and by the end she was begging him to take her, and he grinned wolfishly and touched her just right, and she did scream his name, just like he'd said she would.

So that was how it began. And, whether by accident or design, she kept bumping into him, and it almost always ended the same way, with her clinging to his shoulders as he made her body sing. And he started staying longer and longer once they were finished, and she didn't tell him not to. When her usual Slytherin hookups wanted to know why she was no longer putting out, she simply avoided them until eventually they stopped asking, thinking maybe she was preparing herself for the respectability of an engagement. And she no longer heard about Ted's conquests in the girls' bathrooms, except for the odd complaint that he didn't seem interested anymore.

They both stayed at the castle during the Christmas holidays, and when Ted discovered the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor they barely left it again. With the softness of the mattress and all the time in the world they set out to explore every inch of each other's bodies. And Ted discovered exactly where to touch to make her melt against him, and she learnt how to trail her mouth over the muscles of his lower abdomen so that his eyes rolled back and he grabbed fistfuls of the bedsheets in his hands. And they talked, for hours, and Andromeda didn't stop to wonder at the strangeness of having so much to say to a Muggleborn, or how easily he could make her laugh.

In January, Ted got detention for fighting Hector Nott. Andromeda snuck out to see him, and they ended up in a sweaty, tangled mess on the trophy room floor, and Ted got more detentions when Filch returned and found the door locked, but she was gone by then and not discovered. She almost wouldn't have cared if she had been.

In February, her mother wrote to her that the Notts had proposed engagement, and it had been accepted on her behalf. Andromeda screwed up the parchment and locked herself in the Prefects bathroom, smashing the fawcets and the tiles and making so much noise the mermaid on the wall took refuge out of the frame. When she was done, she went and hunted Ted down, pulling him almost desperately to the Room of Requirement and kissing him until the scream faded from her chest. He didn't question her fervency, just obliged her like he always did, pressing her back into the mattress and running his hands over her body until she was thrashing and sobbing his name. He tried to slow things down, but she was rough, and demanding, and eventually he gave in, meeting her ferocity with his own, driving into her again and again until she forgot about everything except the feel of him inside her.

When they finished, she stood up and wiped the tear tracks from her face. "I can't see you anymore," she said.

Ted watched her from the mattress. His shirt was open, and there were scratches on his chest where she had dragged her nails over him. His hair was sticking up in odd angles, and there was a bite mark on his lip. "Why not?" he asked.

"I'm marrying Hector Nott," she told him. He continued to stare at her blankly, and she found it impossible to control her anger. "Did you hear me?" she demanded.

He began to button up his shirt, hiding the marks she had left on him. "I heard you," he said.

"Then what? Aren't you going to say anything?"

Ted stood up and walked towards her. He stopped a few feet from her, shoving his hands in the pockets of his robes. "Okay, I"ll say something. You can't marry Hector Nott."

"It's already done," she spat, blinking furiously. She knew she should turn around and leave; should never speak to him again. This was supposed to be a one night stand that she forgot all about. Leaving wasn't supposed to be so hard; it wasn't supposed to hurt this much.

Ted shook his head. "You can't."

"Why not?" she asked almost desperately.

He stared at her. "Because I love you."

And for the first time in as long as she could remember, Andromeda found herself speechless. She couldn't believe that this Mudblood boy with his scruffy hair, unkempt clothing and lack of anything to recommend him, could stand there and declare his love for her as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Couldn't believe she had let herself fall into this.

"I told you nobody could know," she snarled, backing away to the door. "This has been fun, but that's all it was, Tonks. Fun. Now it's over."

And she left.

In March, she let Hector Nott kiss her. It wasn't the first time – most Slytherin girls, and probably a fair few non-Slytherins too, had snogged him at some point or another – but this was the first time she had kissed him seriously, and in public. They were in the courtyard, during a free, and there were plenty of students around to witness. Andromeda let him stick his tongue in her mouth, let his hands grope her through her clothing, then pulled away and fought the urge to wipe her lips with her sleeve.

When she looked around, she saw Ted Tonks standing with his friends at the other end of the courtyard. He was glaring at her, his hands clenched into fists at his side. She felt frozen to the spot by his icy gaze.

"Why is that Mudblood staring at us," Nott asked in a lazy drawl, draping an arm over her shoulders and pinning her against him.

"How should I know?" she said, turning her head so that she could not see Ted's livid expression. "Come on, let's go."

A week later, he cornered her. She shouldn't have been on the seventh floor corridor, she knew – but she had been desperate for a cigarette and the fresh air of the Astronomy Tower, and to get away from Hector – and maybe she secretly did want to see him again.

He pulled her into a shadowy alcove, and she couldn't help but gasp at how good it felt to have his hands on her again. But he didn't attempt to kiss her, and when she looked closer she could see how furious he was.

"What do you want?" she asked.

He crowded her space, pressing himself closer. "What do you think Nott would say if he knew you'd been shagging a Mudblood behind his back?"

"Go to hell, Tonks."

"Maybe I will. But I want to go there with you."

She shoved his chest, but he didn't budge. "Yeah, well you can't. I'm marrying Nott and – "

"He doesn't love you. He just wants to own you."

Her eyes stung, because she knew he was right and _dammit_ , she was supposed to be the 'good' one, the proper one, the one her parents didn't need to worry about. "What do you expect me to do? My family will disown me if I refuse."

"I don't know." His voice was soft, and his hands reached up to cup her face, and her eyes flickered and Salazar, she wanted to melt into him and disappear. "All I know is I can't seem to breathe without you anymore. I'm going crazy trying to stay away."

"So am I," she whispered, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Ted brushed it away with his thumb.

"I don't want to own you, Dromeda. I just want to be with you, because I love you."

And, because she believed him and because he was too close for her to resist, she fell back into his arms. And it felt good, so good, to have him press her against the wall like he used to, and feel his hands on her skin and her lips on her neck. And the Room of Requirement was _right there,_ and how could she resist him when it felt so damned good, and every nerve ending in her body was begging her just to let go, let go and give in to him.

In April, she wrote to her mother and told her she could not accept Nott's proposal. Two days later, Hector grabbed her arm in the corridor when she was coming out of Charms, and span her forcefully to face him.

"What the hell do you mean you won't marry me?" he demanded angrily.

She tried to shake him off, but his grip was like iron. "I mean I don't want to be your wife. It's pretty simple."

There was an ugly snarl on his face, and he shook her roughly. "You can't _refuse_ me."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Looks like I just did."

He slapped her, then, his palm slicing across her face, and she was so shocked her ears rang. Before she could even process the violence, there was a shout from somewhere behind her and Nott's hand released her with a curse. When she opened her eyes, it was to find him sprawled on the ground and a scruffy, unkempt blonde boy straddling his chest. She watched numbly as Ted lifted his fist and punched Nott hard across the jaw, twice. The second time, Nott's nose busted, and blood spurted over his crisp white shirt and Slytherin tie.

Ted stood up, dragging a bleeding Nott with him, and slammed him against a row of lockers with enough force for half of them to burst open. "Don't you _ever_ touch her again," he growled, his wand in his hand now and pointed at Nott's throat. "If you lay a finger on her, I will fucking _kill_ you. Do you understand me?" He shoved him again, then turned and stalked off.

Andromeda watched him go, her eyes flicking between the bruised, bleeding Nott, and Ted's rigid back as he walked away, then to the rest of the students that had gathered in the hall around them. And she made up her mind as if it was the easiest thing in the whole world.

"Ted!"

He turned at the sound of her voice, and she threw herself against him, her arms snaking around his neck. His own opened instinctively to accommodate her, and she had a brief glimpse of his surprised, wary face, before she kissed him.

He was stiff with anger, but relaxed slightly when she flicked her tongue against her lips. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her off her feet and turned her so her back was against one of the lockers. His fingers cradled her face, feather light against her jaw, as tender as if she were made of glass, and after a moment he drew back, chest heaving. The hall echoed with a hushed silence, though there were dozens of students witness to what was happening. Someway up the corridor, Nott gaped at them in shock.

"What the fuck is this?" he demanded, but neither Ted nor Andromeda spared him a glance. With a disgusted curse, he spat on the floor, then turned and stalked away. The moment he was gone whispers broke out all around them.

"What are you doing?" asked Ted in a wary voice.

Andromeda smiled at him. She leant closer, so that her lips brushed against his as she spoke. "I love you too," she whispered. Then she pulled a smiling Ted back down and kissed him again.

After that, she stopped sitting at the Slytherin table during mealtimes. Her mother sent a howler, treating the whole Great Hall to a tirade on how she was a blood traitor, a whore and a disgrace to her family. Ted held her hand through the screaming, and when it was finished he waved his wand to vanish the ashes, and neither of them mentioned it again. Her little sister stopped talking to her, and she became a pariah among her housemates. But she found it hurt far less than she'd expected, especially when she was curled up in Ted's chest in the Room of Requirement, or listening to the sound of his heavy breathing in bed beside her. At those times, her heart felt so full she couldn't find any room to grieve what she had lost.

At the end of the year, she didn't go home. Her parents, Cissy and Bella were at King's Cross, grouped ominously on the edge of the platform when she stepped off the train. Her older sister's eyes blazed at the sight of her, but Andromeda kept her hand in Ted's and went straight to the other side of the crowd, and although Bellatrix looked as if she wanted to hex her there in front of everybody, she didn't. Instead, Ted led her over to his father, and together they drove to his small, terraced home on the outskirts of London.

That night, lying in Ted's arms in his small, squeaky bed, Andromeda finally allowed herself to shed a few tears for the life she had said goodbye to. She thought Ted was sleeping, but at the sound of her sobs his arms tightened around her, and his lips moved to kiss the shell of her ear. "What's wrong?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"Nothing," she said, turning and kissing him full on the mouth. "Nothing's wrong."

Ted's eyes were luminescent in the darkness. Andromeda knew he was worried – worried that after her life of wealth and luxury and privilege, she would find his loud family and tiny house all too much and go running back to her manor and the lavish world she had left behind. She could read all of it in his expression, but didn't know how to tell him how wrong he was.

"I know this isn't what you're used to," he began, stroking the soft skin of her neck. "But it's only until I get a job, I promise. Then we can – "

She silenced him with her mouth, climbing on top of him and letting her body tell him all the things she couldn't find the words to say. Ted returned her kiss hungrily, and their bodies entwined in the darkness, and when she took him in both hands and slid him inside her his back arched and his head dug into the pillow with a desperate groan.

"Fuck, Andy – "

She put his hands on her, and they moved together like a single entity in the dusky greyness of the small little flat. And she hoped he knew what she was trying to tell him, with her moans and her gasps and her little whimpers of his name – that she loved him, and only him, and nothing else in the world mattered to her except that.

Her secret was out.

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 **A/N: Ducks for cover! Haha, okay so that's one version of how Ted and Andy got together. I actually have another, much longer version, that I'm working on finishing and posting here some time in the future. Let me know what you thought of this!**

 **Until next time, ~A**


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